Yet, I didn’t know there’s something special about this illustration. My friend, the administrator of the Facebook page, William Albert Andrew (el príncipe de la colina), showed me that Mizuki used this picture in the old Candy Candy novel for the table of contents of Volume 3, right on the page where it shows the last section of the novel, the letter correspondence between Candy and Prince on the Hill: 💕💕
７ キャンディとアルバートさんの往復書簡 ◆Correspondence between Candy and Albert-san
- ウィリアム大おじさま、そして、丘の上の王子さまへ ◆To Granduncle William, then, Prince on the Hill
- キャンディス・ホワイト・アードレーさまへ ◆ To Miss Candice White Ardlay
- 丘の上の王子さまへ ◆ To Prince on the Hill
- おそろしいキャンディへ ◆ To fearful/terrible Candy
- アルバートさんへ ◆ To Albert-san
- キャンディへ ◆ To Candy
- ちっちゃなバートへ ◆ To Little Bert
- アルバートさんへ ◆ To Albert-san
- キャンディへ ◆ To Candy
- ウィリアム・アルバート・アードレーさま ◆ William Albert Ardlay
Isn’t it cute? 😀 Many thanks to my friend for giving me her permission to post these. ❤💕 If you want to see the entire table of contents for Volume 3, please click my admin friend’s Facebook page here.
Similar to the second half of Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) Volume 2, Volume 3 of the old CC novel is composed of Candy’s letters to various people. Mizuki explained herself in “To everybody” (the introduction to Volume 3), the page you see on the left in the picture above, why she didn’t write Volume 3 like a story as in Volumes 1 and 2. Her main reason is she couldn’t possibly fit the rest of the story in one volume, so she asked Candy for help! Yes, Mizuki wrote that. 😆 Besides, Mizuki wanted to let her readers know more about the mysterious Albert-san, so she also asked him! 😆 Thus, he let her have his correspondence with Candy.
Interestingly, Mizuki mentioned that Candy was unwilling to show some letters to her, as though Candy wanted to keep them in her head. Mizuki wondered if those letters were from Terry? 🙄
Some people claimed that Candy didn’t let Mizuki read her correspondence with Terry because they were private and special, whereas Candy didn’t mind people to read her correspondence with Prince on the Hill. 😮
Needless to say, I disagree. Note that Mizuki wasn’t definite in her old novel whether those letters were actually from Terry in the past. Mizuki just wrote that she wondered if these letters were from him because Candy kept them bundled up (separately from other letters).
To me, I think Mizuki had clarified this in CCFS. On P. 197 of CCFS Volume 2, Candy in her present time said that she couldn’t continue to see Terry’s letters or clippings concerning Terry anymore (for she recalled the events that had occurred back then). She decided to put them all back into her damascene jewelry box. This was consistent with her action years ago, when she had written to Albert that she hadn’t opened her old diary and even decided to entrust it to Albert (see More than words (Part 2) for your interest).
So Candy hadn’t changed since. She had remained steadfast about keeping Terry in her past. As my friend on Twitter, Yue月, once said to me, that all the contents in the jewelry box were Candy’s memories. 🙂
Come to think of it, if Terry is indeed Anohito in CCFS, isn’t it extremely strange that Candy resolved not to open his letters or clippings? 🙄
Not to mention that Mizuki said in her old novel she had carefully selected which letters to tell the rest of her Candy Candy story. Logically, the same applies to CCFS. In other words, only the significant letters are shown in both Mizuki’s novels for the readers to understand her story (what have happened to the main heroine, Candy), right? 😛
If you insist otherwise, that Candy was willing to show her letters with her prince because he wasn’t special enough or she wasn’t in love with him, how do you explain why Candy eagerly wrote to William Albert Ardlay (the very last letter in the old CC novel) that she would follow him wherever he would go? 🙄 Would a girl in her right mind say that to a man she didn’t love? My friend Yue月 even said that explained why in CCFS Candy had moved across the ocean with Anohito (Albert) and lived in a different continent! 😀 😉
Besides, if Albert was merely a brother or a father figure to Candy, would she call him Little Bert, again and again? Don’t forget that the adjective “Little”, ちっちゃな, carries such endearing meanings as “cutie” or “tiny little”. Just imagine a young lady calling her older brother or father “cutie pie” or “sweetie” then you will know what I mean. 😉
Guess what else my admin friend told me? 😀
At the end of CCFS epilogue, Candy was back to her present, and her husband came home to her, taking her by surprise. (As Reeka pointed out, it’s very likely her husband was on a business trip.) Anyway, my admin friend observed that not only this ending in CCFS mirrored the manga ending, but Candy mentioned Anohito three times. 🙂 (あのひと this あのひと that three times 😉 ) This reminds my admin friend of the manga ending, where Candy realized Albert’s three roles in her life, namely Albert-san, Granduncle William, and Prince on the Hill.
You might say it’s a coincidence, but who knows? 😜😝
As a matter of fact, I noticed that Anohito called his wife “Candy”. In CCFS, Candy wrote in her unsent letter to Terry that he had always addressed her as Tarzan Freckles, and she signed both her letters to him as such (neither was sent to him by the way). You might say that Terry had matured and stopped calling her that by then, but if Candy didn’t mind calling herself Tarzan Freckles when writing to Terry, isn’t it sweet for him to use the same old nickname to remind each other of their long history since their youth? 😉 Also, you might argue that in Terry’s ambiguous letter to Candy, he did write “Candy”, but that was after the breakup, so he was probably more careful.
Last but not the least, I remember Antlay once wrote to me that throughout the story, who always surprised Candy and appeared out of the blue? 😝 Not to mention that Candy described Anohito’s voice as tender/affectionate (やさしい) and that he was smiling at her. Apparently, these were Albert’s traits (same for Prince on the Hill), not Terry’s. Many thanks for reading, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you. ❤ ❤